


A Mascot to Keep

by lialibea



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shop, Cute, Derek is a mascot, M/M, Stiles studies biology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 11:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10853304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lialibea/pseuds/lialibea
Summary: Today just happens to be one of those days where a random mascot is standing in front of a cookie-stand on the big Christmas fair. So, Stiles presses himself close to the wolf as Scott holds up his phone. The flash is bright and it takes a second for Stiles to blink it away, which he uses to let go off the wolf."What the hell?" Stiles' head jerks up towards the giant wolf and he can hear a woman's laugh behind him. The voice is slightly annoyed, slightly surprised and very wolfy. He throws a quick glance over his shoulder to see the dark haired woman openly laughing and giving him a thumbs up. Stiles blinks at her but then smiles at her."What, buddy? Never seen a kid this cute before?"The wolf leans slightly away from him. "Pretty sure you're not a child," it deadpans.





	A Mascot to Keep

**Author's Note:**

> So I basically haven't written any fanfiction since last year which is bonkers (or like, I've started a lot but I'm useless at actually finishing anything). I guess I just had to sit down and finish this one. It's sweet, I like it, maybe I'll come back to this one later? Idk, so just have this!

Stiles pauses.

"Hey, Scotty-boy, look over there."

"Dude, no." Scott's usually cheery face goes almost blank while looking at the giant wolf. "Stiles, _no_."

"I'm gonna do it, Scott, you know I got to." He gives his best friend a pleading look that should explain why he got to do this. Because Scott knows how stupidly important this is to him.

Scott sighs and holds out his hand. "Hand me the phone."

Stiles beams and picks out the phone from his pocket and lays it in Scott's hand. "You're the best, man!"

Scott just sighs again and nods. He eyes the surroundings and gets a small, concerned line between his eyebrows.

Then, Stiles runs towards the wolf. There are kids around him, giving him strange looks in front of the stand filled with cookies. A woman is standing behind the stand, smiling brightly. Stiles doesn't really care about her though, eyes only on the giant rugged-looking wolf. He smiles brightly towards the wolf and then wraps his long arms around the mascot, giving it a big hug.

Stiles knows it is ridiculous. He is twenty-two and should not be running around looking for mascots and then capturing himself hugging said mascot but it is something he has to do. Scott knows it and has suffered through many awkward pictures, the last one ending with them not only being laughed at but also being thrown out of the store. Yet, Stiles still has to do it. The last time him and his mother was out together she had wanted to snap a picture of him hugging Ronald McDonald and he had straight out refused. It was stupid, but to honour his dead mum he has to take a picture every time he sees a mascot. He _has_ to. Over the years it sort of has dissolved into a stupid game but still, every time he sees a mascot he feels the familiar tug on his heart. Somehow, he's convinced Scott that he really doesn't care all that much anymore but of course he still does. Fortunately for him, there aren't that many mascots around anymore, at least not off college-grounds.

Anyways, today just happens to be one of those days where a random mascot is standing in front of a cookie-stand on the big Christmas fair. So, Stiles presses himself close to the wolf as Scott holds up his phone. The flash is bright and it takes a second for Stiles to blink it away, which he uses to let go off the wolf.

"What the hell?" Stiles' head jerks up towards the giant wolf and he can hear a woman's laugh behind him. The voice is slightly annoyed, slightly surprised and very wolfy. He throws a quick glance over his shoulder to see the dark haired woman openly laughing and giving him a thumbs up. Stiles blinks at her but then smiles at her.

"What, buddy? Never seen a kid this cute before?"

The wolf leans slightly away from him. "Pretty sure you're not a child," it deadpans.

It's Stiles' turn to lean from the wolf. He puts on his best offended look and clutches his shirt, draws in a breath.

"And here I thought we were getting along nicely, hugging and shit and now you say I'm lying to you! What are you, an animal?"

The man inside the costume groans and the woman behind the stand laughs again. Some of the kids are watching him with big, round eyes. Stiles kind of want to make them turn around. That, or dance ballet so they'd really have something to look at.

"You're scaring away the kids, Der!" The woman behind the stand smiles at Stiles while the wolf, probably named Der, sighs again.

"You dog!" Stiles says, only loud enough for the mascot to hear. "I bet you these kids won't buy any cookies now, Der."

The wolf just crosses its' arms and gives him a look. Or he at least thinks it's giving him a look since, you know, mascots tends not to have real eyes.

"It's Derek."

Stiles nods and cannot hide the smile creeping up on his face.

"Stiles."

"Stiles?"

"Stiles." He continues to hold the stare. Somewhere deep inside the wolf-face, Stiles can see a pair of blue, ivory eyes looking at him.

"What is a Stiles?"

"It's a me. I'm a Stiles, my name is Stiles. Oh my, such big ears yet you hear so badly!"

Derek, the big wolf, just shakes his head. It looks comical and Stiles has a hard time keeping his laughter inside.

"Go back to hugging little kids, ya big wolf. Be careful not to bite, Der." Stiles is just about to walk back over to Scott who looks very uncomfortable but he's stopped by a woman's voice calling his name. He turns around and sees the dark haired woman waving him towards her. So, being Stiles, he walks over to her.

"You deserve some cookies for that." She picks up a packet with chocolatechip-cookies, carefully wrapped in plastic and held together with a big, red bow. Stiles smiles brightly.

"Wow, thanks." He takes the cookies, picks one and takes a bite. Oh. _Oh_. "Holy shit, you made these?"

She smirks and nods. "I'm Laura by the way and that, that's my asshole brother Derek."

Stiles turns his eyes towards the wolf whom now is hugging a little girl while still finishing off the cookie.

"He always angry when people hugs him or is that just a me thing?"

"It's a cute-guy thing," she smirks and Stiles feels his cheeks heat up as he glances back at Laura. It's not- he's not-.

"You take me as a guy who's into bestiality?"

Laura laughs. "I saw you oogeling his ass, so yeah." He hadn't- well…

"You should come into the shop some day. We have more of these there." Laura nods towards the cookies. "My asshole-brother usually is there and helps me when he's not writing. Please come in, Stiles."

With that, she smiles at him and turns around to great a costumer with a big smile. Stiles opens his mouth and shuts it again. Did he just get prompted to date a mascot by said mascot's sister?

*****

Quite frankly, Stiles is terrified. When he'd decided to go to _"Hale's Kitchen"_ to finish off his essay it had sounded like a good idea. Now, standing in front of the café, it doesn't seem as apealing. Sure, he wants to get the essay done and Laura's cookies _had_ been some of the best cookies he's ever eaten but still. STILL. He's kind of terrified and he's not really sure why. Laura had been nice to him and invited him over, promising more delicious cookies. Either way, she probably doesn't even remember him anymore. There had been a lot of people during the fair and the possibility that she'd remember _him_. Slight, slim, even impossibly small chances.

Stiles takes a deep breath and opens the door. A warm and delicious smell comes to him as he takes a step inside the café. There are a few sofas inside, pretty many armchairs and even more small tables. To sum it up, the place is just cozy. It's one of those hidden gems people search for and then never lets go off, he realises as he's heading towards the counter. There's no line and he can only see dark hair being bent over one of the counters.

"Hello?" The dark hair comes up and wow. It's attached to a pretty face, chiseled jawline, dark stubble and blue, striking eyes. Hello, tall, dark and handsome.

The man quirks up an eyebrow.

"Welcome," tall, dark and handsome says. It takes a moment for Stiles to gather his scattered mind but he quickly recovers.

"Ehm, do you have chocolate chip cookies?" Shit, that was _not_ somebody that has recovered that talks like that. He bites his lip as tall dark and handsome gestures towards the counter in front of him.

"Yes."

Stiles feels jittery, not sure what to say so of course his non-filtered mouth does the job for him. "I guess the 'I'm blind' excuse wouldn't work since I already looked at you when you spoke." Fuck, you are not supposed to make jokes about the blind.

The man furrows his brows and looks confused, annoyed and uncomfortable, all at once. It shouldn't be a good look, it really shouldn't. Stiles wants to sink right through the ground and disappear, now please. Why can't he ever shut up? What he'd said didn't even make any goddamn sense.

"Well..." He clears his throat. "Just give me a chocolate chip cookie and whatever is considered the best thing here. Also, dark coffee."

Tall dark and hansome nods and begins picking out the cookies and laying them on a small plate. Stiles just stands there awkwardly, hot in his winter-coat and with still a bit of melting snow in his hair dripping down. Just as the man takes a cup somebody comes from the side of the counter.

"Derek, not scaring away the costumers again now, are we?" The man looks up and makes a face at… Laura.

That's when it clicks. Derek. The wolf. Oh. My. _God_.

"Oh shit, you're the wolf!"

Laura turns her head towards Stiles and smiles. She looks surprised, like it's a happy surprised and not like they'd met _once_ for five minutes tops.

"Stiles!" she calls out. Stiles smiles back at her, mind still on Derek. Shit, if he'd known the man behind the mask was this hot he'd held on for a bit longer when hugging him. That sounds creepy he realises at the same time as Derek's eyebrows skyrockets.

"You're the weirdo?"

"Hey, you're the one that was dressed as a _wolf while hugging little children_!"

Derek frowns again but Stiles can see a tug in the corner of the man's mouth.

"Definitely scaring away our costumers," Laura says and lightly smacks the back of Derek's neck. The man doesn't even flinch, he just looks a bit annoyed.

"Just go get him his coffee, Derek." Derek just rolls his eyes, grunts something but heads to get Stiles his coffee. Stiles follows him with his eyes but snaps back when Laura starts talking again.

"So, you doing some studying?"

"Yeah, biology."

Laura nods thoughtfully and hands Stiles the plate with the two delicious-looking cookies.

"Where are you from?"

Half a smile tugs at Stiles' lips. "Ehm, you've probably never heard of it but I'm from Beacon Hills, it's a small ci-"

Laura just stares at him and Stiles shuts his mouth, afraid he's said something wrong. "What?"

"No way, _I'm_ from Beacon Hills!"

Stiles eyes go wide. "I'm the sheriff's son, Stillinski!"

"Oh my god, we're Laura and Derek Hale!"

"I was in the same grade as your sister!"

Derek comes back, frowning at them. "He's Stillinski's son!" Laura calls out when she sees Derek.

"No way," he says. "You're _that_ Stiles."

To be fair, Stiles had been up to some shit when he'd been in High School. His dad being the sheriff had cause Stiles' curious mind to wander and when he got older, he and Scott had been running around looking at crime scenes. He wasn't exactly proud of what they'd done per se but it had somehow helped him when everything else had felt like shit.

So, when Derek says his name like that Stiles just wants to cringe. What is the first time that comes to Derek's mind? The articles in the news paper? Him running around with an ugly baseball cap, never shutting up?

"You're the kid that was obsessed with ants."

Or that. Well, he'd done it all, hadn't he?

"Well, I have you know that ants are in fact one of the most evolutionary fitted species currently living on this earth!"

Derek just lifts his goddamn eyebrows.

"Biology major?"

"It's not that obvious, is it?"

Derek actually smiles a little and ouch, Stiles can feel that in his _heart_.

A snort makes Stiles jump and turn towards Laura whom he had _not_ forgotten about when Derek had smiled like that.

"Well, I have cookies to make, so I'll just leave you two to it."

Derek shakes his head and hands Stiles the cup of coffee. The man in front of him looks at him, seemingly puzzled. Had he…?

"Oh, shit, yeah, money, oh, sorry I forget, I'll just-"

He reaches around, trying to find his backpack and then his wallet. Fuck, who _forgets_ that you need to pay?

"It's on the house," Derek blurts out and Stiles turns around again.

"Really?"

"Yeah, just take it."

Derek smiles again and Stiles suddenly feels warm.

"Thank you, Derek," he just says. He wants to linger a little longer, get lost in those eyes but he forces himself to take the cup and go to sit down at one of the tables. He plops down in the armchair after having shrugged out of his wet coat. Just as he is about to take the first sip of his coffee, his eyes catches something on the cup. Dumbfounded, he just stares at the number for a second before he feels his cheeks light up a bit. A smile spreads quickly over his face.

He throws a glance over his shoulder and finds Derek leaning against the counter, looking at him. Stiles just smiles and gestures for Derek to come over. Derek looks around the shop before he makes his way over and plops down in the armchair in front of Stiles.

"So, the wolf costume," Stiles starts and Derek groans. And then, he smiles. Stiles smiles back. A fleeting thought thanking his mum passes through his brain.

Needless to say, he does not finish his essay that day.


End file.
